Abir Maqsood is angry.
She has things to do: a career to carve, money to earn, and, in the small stuff, a dining table to fix. But there are many obstacles in the way: lack of money, her parents’ over-protective attitude, and a most annoying distraction in class called Arsalan.
When her mother is not paid her dues for her henna service, Abir resolves to help her by creating a henna app. Her college is also running a program for student start-ups so things look most fortuitous. But the path to getting funding is littered with more thorns than roses.
As Abir navigates through college, friendships and social pressures with determination, will she find the freedom that she is truly looking for?
Winner of the Neev Book Award 2024 • the Crossword Book Award • the BK Children’s Book Award • the Auther Award
A spicy meet-cute that will delight your rom-com palate!
Wedding planner Tanvi Bedi is all fired up about her latest project, the $100 million wedding of a media heiress. The only hitch is her high-profile client’s wishlist chef, Nik Shankar. Weddings are a complete no-no for Nik, but there must be something—or someone—he can’t resist.
Nik Shankar’s lifelong dream of inheriting his ancestral home is in jeopardy due to his estranged grandfather’s absurd caveat—Nik must get married to claim the property. When Tanvi storms into his office, an inconceivable solution presents itself: Nik will craft the wedding if Tanvi pretends to be his fiancée.
What starts as a recipe for disaster whips up into a delectable feast of simmering chemistry and fiery passion. But as the line between fake and real blurs, Tanvi and Nik must confront their inner demons before their charade goes up in smoke.
Could love be the secret ingredient they need?
In 1929, Bhagat Singh surrenders after a daring bomb attack in the heart of Delhi’s assembly. Behind bars, he prepares for an ideological battle against the empire. However, a shocking betrayal shatters his world.
Phanindra Nath Ghosh, a trusted comrade, becomes a British approver, revealing every secret of the HSRA. His damning testimony leads to multiple arrests, and then the British hang Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdeo. Popularly known as the ‘king’s witness’, he had singlehandedly brought on an armed revolution.
But with their leaders gone and British oppression at its peak, surviving HSRA members rally around one burning desire: revenge. Their target is the man who dismantled their life’s work. But with limited resources, their hopes rest on a lone figure.
From the shadows emerges Baikunth Sukul, an unassuming teacher and devoted admirer of Bhagat Singh. He swears to exact revenge on behalf of the martyrs and the HSRA.
Will he succeed in this nearly impossible mission?
What happens when he locks horns with the formidable British Raj?
And to what lengths will he go to avenge Bhagat Singh’s death?
India’s journey to Independence was filled with deeds of forgotten heroes. This is one such story of sacrifice and revenge—of a patriot against a traitor, a common man against the empire.
A hate video goes viral. A dying father sets out in search of the living. A daughter risks all to follow her head and heart.
The Patient in Bed Number 12 is a remarkable novel framed as a confession from parent to child, from child to parent. In this profoundly moving exchange, secrets long buried tumble out, mysterious and dreamlike: a grieving mother finds solace in a newspaper photograph; a ghost comes to life in an abandoned fridge; children fill empty jars with the night’s darkness; a young couple plan how to seek permission for their love; and three men with a phone camera turn a family’s world upside down.
Just as one breath holds in its end the beginning of another, each story’s close becomes the opening for the next—linking fragile strands of individual lives into a tapestry of hope and heartbreak. From Raj Kamal Jha, India’s ‘novelist of the newsroom,’ comes a searing investigation of the pulse of today’s India: a billion-plus young people, restless and ambitious, trying to shed the burdens of their past—and yet haunted by ghosts of mistrust and hate.
Surprisingly little is known about the siege of Kohima, considered a game-changing event that altered the course of world history during the Second World War. His Majesty’s Headhunters adds to our understanding of this battle and shows how it redefined a whole era.
Providing a unique perspective of Nagaland and its warriors, this book uncovers the untold story of the siege, regarded as one of the more celebrated battles of D-Day and often referred to as the ‘Stalingrad of the East’ by Western scholars. Historians even believe that this was the last battle of the British Empire
and the first battle of the ‘New India’.
However, that is just the tale told so far by everyone except the Nagas. The real history of this battle—which involved the Japanese Army, led by Lieutenant General Sato, and the Allied forces—is yet to be recounted. As Lt Gen. Sato is said to have remarked, if it were not for the Naga people, the Allied forces would have been defeated in Kohima, and the Japanese Army would have easily secured the Dimapur railway station and moved victoriously towards Bengal via Assam, thus reversing the outcome of the war.
This rare and deeply researched historical account, drawing on records left by the officers and soldiers who fought in Kohima, is a page-turner. It brings to light the valour and spirit of the Naga ‘headhunters’, who made the supreme sacrifice to protect the honour of their people.
After Kunal’s mother dies, he is sent off to a boarding school in the hills. Till he has a hostel room, he stays with Tara, his father’s cousin, who teaches a special music programme in the school.
Teaching music helped Tara after her best friend died—that, and perhaps the company of the enigmatic figure known as Death, whom she sees everywhere.
Tara and Kunal must try to live together, their lives entwined by their separate losses—which neither is comfortable talking about.
This is a tale of love and loss, of the healing and illuminating power of friendship, art and music.
Imayam is considered one of the most important Tamil writers today and this powerful collection of stories reveals just why that is. Whether he is depicting a lack of political morality in the novella Vazhga Vazhga, questioning whether religion unifies or divides in Tiruneeru Sami, or narrating his unique spin on Samban, a character from one our epics, Imayam’s unsparing gaze on society gently and subtly reveals the inequalities people must live with and navigate.
Beautifully translated by Prabha Sridevan, the stories in this collection are layered, and told with deep empathy and humour.
THE GALLERY pursues the question of what it takes for a woman to stand up for herself, through the intertwined lives of Minal and Ellora Sahni, wife and daughter of a successful New Delhi lawyer, and Maitrye and Tashi, wife
and daughter of the office peon at the Sahni law practice. In her new novel, Manju Kapur brings together themes of independence, identity and womanhood by focusing on a set of principal characters who are connected through work and physical proximity, yet separated by class and power.
As the women navigate their own desires, they are forced to re-examine marriage, as well as to consider the role of art as property, value and self-expression. The titular gallery that Minal opens becomes a powerful symbol of both autonomy and constraint.
Set in Delhi and Nepal, The Gallery surveys the lives of two families over three decades, becoming, in the process, an exploration of sexual freedom and the world of art.
Five terminally ill, troubled teens commit suicide in their hostel rooms locked from inside.
Until one chilling truth reveals: murders.
But how is the killer passing murders as suicides inside locked rooms?
Simone Singh, a feisty CBI investigator struggling with her own mental health, is charged with solving the crimes. But time is running out as more teens start committing ‘suicide’ all over India. As Simone inches closer to the web of deception woven by the cunning killer, little does she know that the hunter is becoming the hunted. Can Simone take down the crafty puppeteer before her own mental demons bring her crashing down?
Riveting and relentlessly paced, The Girl with Broken Dreams will appeal to readers who crave determined heroines, heart-stopping mysteries, and psychological thrillers with a mind-boggling final twist.
Step into the twisted mind of The Girl with the Broken Dreams today!
Children forced out of their homes
Humans discarded as empty shells
A Machine that sucks out Power.
Secrets
More secrets
And still more secrets-
I must fight a government of evil,
destroy the Machine,
and . . . save my mother.
Me, twelve-year-old Rohini.
Ha. Really?
